Day 223 – Sunday 13th December – The middle of nowhere!

Drove past Mackay to Sarina and on towards St Lawrence. We made it almost as far as Kalarka before giving up in the heat and turning into the Clearview Van Park on the beach which turned out to have the only bar for 30kms in either direction and a happy hour that starts at 3pm on Sundays! Needless to say, we made full use of it and got stuck into an afternoon (and evening) session with the locals. Amongst them were ‘Mad Mick’ and his mate, the toothless cattle poacher and a very entertaining carpenter-come-crocodile-relocator called Pete. A guy called Bob, who took us through his Camp4 guide showing all the free or budget places to stop and the hosts Camilla and Dave who fed us meat pies and sausage rolls as free bar snacks.
We spent the evening back at Pete’s van feeding apples by hand to the local possums and learning about Australian politics, the rights and wrongs of Steve Irwin’s actions and sinking yet more beers.